Danielle and Tony are the husband and wife team of professional photographers behind Mon Petit Chou Photography. Based in Toronto, we specialize in maternity, newborn, baby, family and lifestyle photography. Our style is natural and relaxed, and we strive to create a custom experience for each family that we work with. Learn more about us or get in touch.
Your digital photos aren't going to magically appear in neat, named folders on your computer without a little effort on your part. That said, don't get discouraged -- there's still hope for your precious pics. "Establish a system today and when you have five minutes, go back and organize what you can," says Peter Walsh, organizational expert and author of It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life With Less Stuff.
Capture the joy, beauty and significance of pregnancy with a personal maternity portrait session at Glamour Shots®. Our professional makeup artist will bring out the beauty of the mom to be, while our professional photographers use flattering poses and lighting to capture this incredible time in your life. Maternity photography can be intimidating to some women, but our friendly team will make you comfortable, relaxed, and feeling beautiful. This special time in your life can never be recreated or copied. That’s why we help you capture images that will be cherished for a lifetime.
Assuming that you are setting something up, choosing the time of day and the location carefully, you have control of all the elements. Meaning, once you get set up the exposure should not need to change. But if you put it in Aperture or Shutter priority, depending in the metering mode selected, the camera could choose a slightly different exposure for each frame. You do NOT want that! Consistency is very important.
We mentioned earlier in one of our wedding photography tips about having a running order of the day. In addition, it is also a good idea to get the times of the quicker moments such as the cake cut, bouquet toss, confetti and sparklers. You don’t want these moments to happen whilst you are having a quick sandwich or have just nipped to the toilet. These moments are over in a flash so it is best to have the timings locked down if possible.
it’s so important to take a photo of the two of you, with your growing bump. when you look back on the pictures of the two (well, three including your baby) of you, it will be so fun to see what you both looked like during that time. even better, take this photo in your nursery so you can remember what your nursery initially looked like. for us, we didn’t know the gender of our little one so our nursery changed a bit once we found out our baby was a girl when she was born. it’s fun to see what the beginning stages of her nursery looked like, while we were planning for pink or blue.
"I recently did a photo shoot with James and he was great! I contacted him 4 days before I needed to have the photos done and he was responsive within 15 minutes. He is really flexible with times and locations. We went to a few cool locations downtown that I would have never thought of. Very nice young man who knows what he is doing. I would do another photo shoot in the future!"
Wear solid colors to accentuate your belly. When selecting your outfit for your maternity shoot, consider wearing solid colors that will highlight the shape of your belly. Large patterns can distract or conceal your baby bump.[6] If you wish to wear a pattern with swirls, stripes, or florals, make sure you are happy with how the pattern accentuates your belly.
Thank you so much for this post! I too am trying to “learn” newborn photography, just did a shoot of my friend’s 10 month old daughter (they turned out beautiful!), but the little one month boy was another story! I am shooting another one month old little girl tomorrow, hopefully I will learn from my mistakes I made today! I am doing the pictures for free to learn, but this is so hard! I wish I knew what I was doing wrong, or do I just need to practice? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Oh, I was raised in San Diego, my whole family is there, will be visiting for Christmas this year. Will be there for 2 weeks to pack up my mom and move her! Maybe I can get in on a photo session??? Hopefully I will have it figured out by then!
Each Additional Grouping – $25 Turn your family portrait session into a complete pictorial session if you have separate groups to photograph. For example, include one group of the whole family, another group of just the grandparents, others with each adult child’s family, and maybe one with just the grandkids. Construct as many groupings as you like.
As far as being too far away from the subjects - that's well - subjective. I agree you're not doing a landscape photo but we go to great lengths to select the location so let's see some of it. I also tend to sell large wall portraits and face size is dependent on print size. So once you make these into a 24x30 or so the face sizes are quite good. I just took another look and of all the images the only one that's maybe a bit looser cropped is the family in black sitting on the rock (3 young kids). Other than that I wouldn't crop any of them any closer no matter what print size.
Determine how you will receive your pictures. Find out how long you can expect to wait for the pictures, and in what format they will be presented. You need to make sure you know what your photographer will pass on to you at end of the process. The number of photos, the format and resolution of the photos, as well as the way they are presented are all crucial questions.[13]
Most of the time children are oblivious to any seriousness involved in a wedding day. Just let them do their thing and they will more than likely provide you with comedy gold. They will yawn in the ceremony, pick their noses during the speeches and dance like there is no tomorrow. If the children belong to the couple getting married all the more reason to photograph them. The couple will love these types of shots. Plus they are great blackmail tools for the parents to use when they are older.
Scrunchy little faces, sweet wrinkles, and rolls…is there anything more precious than a newborn babe?! We think not! That is why today we are featuring the perfect way to savor that precious “newborn stage” with all the best newborn photography tips. Whether you are a skilled photographer or someone who just likes snapping their own photos, we have come up with the perfect tips and ideas for capturing the perfect newborn photos. After seeing all the cute baby picture ideas you won’t want to wait to set up your newborn photo shoot!! Get ready for a serious overload of…
Let the photographer connect with the baby. In order for your baby to feel comfortable, you should avoid crowding your little one. It’ll be tempting to run over whenever your baby becomes restless or cries, but you should do your best to let the photographer comfort the baby so the baby doesn’t feel startled by too many changes. Always remain in the room though during your baby’s shoot.
All sitting fees are non-refundable and due at the time the appointment is scheduled. Sitting fees do not include the cost of digital images, albums or prints. Prints and additional products are sold A La Carte at the Ordering Session. Sitting fees do not include any additional costs associated with venues/locations/parking/permits; additional fees may be required. Clients are responsible for the venue/location/parking/permit costs. Locations beyond a 30 mile radius from our studio will be charged an extra Destination Fee. Our payment methods include: cash, check, visa and Mastercard accepted through Paypal. Please let me know if you are going to pay using a credit card and I will send you an invoice through Paypal. We charge a 3.5% credit card transaction fee for every purchase through paypal. We offer payment plans for purchases over $250. Please call or email us for more details. There is a cancellation fee of $185 for all appointments not cancelled within 48 hours. All returned checks, regardless whether services have been rendered, will be charged a $25 returned item fee if the check bounces.

Visit the locations of the different places that you’ll be shooting before the big day. While I’m sure most Pros don’t do this – I find it really helpful to know where we’re going, have an idea of a few positions for shots and to know how the light might come into play. On one or two weddings I even visited locations with the couples and took a few test shots (these made nice ‘engagement photos’).

#1 – it automatically forces you to slow down. That’s a good thing. You can check your settings, review the composition, and exposure to make sure you’ve got everything right. All to often it’s easy to get carried away once you put the camera up to your eye and forget to check something only to see later you had the wrong White Balance, or ISO was 6400, or you accidentally shot Small JPG. Slow down, avoid an “oops”.
Most contracts stipulate that the photographer owns the rights to all photos taken at the wedding, even the ones of you. In other words, the photographer can use them promotionally (on their website or blog, submit them for publication and even place them in ads). That also means you can't just post the digital proofs they send you—most photographers have a policy that you can only share watermarked images or images with their credit on them. Also, unless you negotiate otherwise, if you want to print the images yourselves or order an album from another source, you'll have to buy the rights to the images.
Be very open with your clients about your preference regarding an engagement session and explain how you typically do it. Be very patient with the couple and let them speak their minds before suggesting anything from yourself. As the opportunity presents itself for you to explain what you usually do, lead them the right way while showing examples of your previous work. Ask questions and make the session about them. Find out if they like certain places or if they have strong location preferences where they wish to be photographed. Are they an outdoorsy couple or do they enjoy the city life better?
No me neither! Because our wedding photography tips and tricks have got you covered. Lots of modern cameras like the Canon 5D or the Nikon D750 have dual card slots meaning each image is recorded to two cards. This eats away a lot of memory. So it’s an idea to have lots and lots of memory cards. Our preference is to have around 100gbs worth of memory cards per camera.

“When shooting a wedding I try to keep my set up really simple. I find that the more toys to play around with takes time away from the thing I am most interested in documenting: the people. Generally, I roll with 2 DSLR bodies, 2 lenses (Canon 50mm f/1.2L/Canon, 24mm f/1.4L) and a Pelican case full of cards in my pocket. I have other gear there on the day just in case but that’s pretty much it.”

Last summer, at my extended family reunion on the beach, I knew I was going to have to figure something out. My solution was to find a kind soul nearby on the beach and ask for a big favor. I set up the entire family, got the tripod/camera in place, then nervously looked around. There was a nice lady who was in her chair reading a book. I went up to her and asked if she’d mind snapping a few for us. The reason I didn’t do the running thing this time is because there were so many of us, I needed her to just snap 30 in a row to make sure we were all looking. I said that, too. Just take a bunch in one minute, then you’re done!
Pro tip: Once you get the sign and the location nailed down, it's time to concentrate on wardrobe. "Wear something you feel comfortable and confident in," says Tempe, Ariz.-based photographer Melissa Young. "I like the way long dresses and skirts work for maternity. If you have any doubts on the outfits, you may choose to seek advice from your photographer in advance, as they can give tips as to what photographs best for your body type and the location you are shooting at."
My family hasn’t had family photos taken in 5 years. Since then, I have had 2 children, my brother has gotten married, and my youngest brother has grown at least 4 inches. I think that we need an updated family picture. I would love to hire a great photographer to capture my beautiful family. I will keep my eyes peeled for a photographer that has all the qualities I desire so we can get a great photo.
Identifying faces and places. It can be both fascinating and frustrating to see the faces of strangers gazing back at us, piquing our curiosity about their stories and their connection to us. Often there is scant information available other than cryptic notations in an unfamiliar hand, or the faces themselves that bear a subtle or profound family resemblance. With a little sleuthing, however, you may be able to fit the pieces together.